Consiglio arrived in Houston this spring, while another man at his table, Matteo Beltrami, had been in the New World just 48 hours. Even Fellini's pastry chef Giuseppe Montoro was baking in a Palermo pasticceria two months ago.

Houston attracts not just a wide variety of immigrant groups but also entrepreneurs in the restaurant business who know how to tap into the communities.

Fellini co-owner Paolo Fronza, an Italian immigrant himself, began pulling in Italian-born customers as soon as he opened one month ago at the new Hanover Rice Village development at 5211 Kelvin. He goes to lengths to make the place look and feel like the home they left behind.

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"All groups look for a place to congregate," said Charles Gallagher, chairman of the sociology department and a researcher of immigration issues at La Salle University in Philadelphia.

But at some immigrant hangouts it's not enough to offer "a little bit of nostalgia," he said. "It needs to be aesthetically pleasing and high-end enough to appeal to well-educated people with discretionary incomes," he said.

European-style cafes tend to be upscale.

"Italian espresso machines are beautiful and help give the place cachet," he said. "It's a way to differentiate it from Starbucks."

Fellini's equipment was imported from Italy. Most of its employees are Italian-born, as is the architect. Many of the Italian-born customers are either engineers or medical researchers.

First-generation entrepreneurs catering to their own immigrant group have a built-in advantage, said Betsy Gelb, professor of marketing at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston.

"Your customers want you to succeed," she said.

There have been times when every Fellini customer was speaking Italian, Fronza said.

They learned of Fellini through Fronza's friends and his Facebook page, said Fronza, a former executive with the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce of Texas.

Fronza said the Fellini project cost about $350,000, funded by personal finances. He and his partner, Salvatore Albelice, a local distributor of Italian-branded coffee and coffee equipment, spent $100,000 on the bar alone. It includes stainless-steel display cases and refrigerators, all imported from Italy.

The developers of Hanover Rice Village had been approached by other coffeehouse concepts but picked Fellini even though the owners had no cafe experience, said David Ott, the company's development partner.

They were confident knowing longtime local restaurateur Nash D'Amico would be helping them set up the business, he said, and were convinced it would feel authentic and complement Rice Village coffeehouses Croissant Brioche and Salento.

Hanover Rice Village has exceptionally wide sidewalks, Ott said, with room for Fellini's walk-up window for coffee orders. Later at the same project Coppa restaurant will have a walk-up pizza window and Cyclone Anaya's will have a taco window.

Fellini's architect, Florence native Filo Castore, associate principal at the Houston office of Perkins & Will, said he wanted the streamlined modern interior to resemble coffee bars in Italy.

"This is the most Italian place in Houston," said Houston native Jerry Baiamonte, past president of the Houston Cultural and Community Center. "The way the high-end stainless steel bar displays the sandwiches and pastries - you know you're walking into a spiffy Italian spot."

Francesco Fusco, an aerospace engineer, said he can live the Italian lifestyle at Felllini.

In the morning he'll stand at the counter and have a breakfast of cornetto, an Italian croissant, and a cappuccino, and in little time he is on his way, he said.